Billy Gilman Pics

Billy

Gilman

24/05/1988

67

Average

Blue

Blonde

Hope Valley, Rhode Island

Gemini

White

Dare to Dream

Male

Country

American

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William Wendell "Billy" Gilman III (born May 24, 1988) is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 11, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to a Top 40 hit on the country music charts. An album of the same name was released later that year on Epic Records, and was certified Double Platinum in the United States. Following it was a Christmas album Classic Christmas and Dare to Dream, both of which were certified gold. He exited Epic's roster and signed to Image Entertainment in 2005 releasing Everything and More. In 2006, he released the self-titled Billy Gilman.

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Born in Hope Valley, Rhode Island, he lives with his parents Bill and Fran Gilman and his younger brother Colin. At 8, he attracted the attention of a local vocal coach, Angela Bacari, who later became his manager. He met and worked with Ray Benson (of Asleep at the Wheel) who helped record demos, including "Roly Poly". He was then signed to Sony Music Nashville. Shortly before his debut album was released, Billy sang "Roly Poly" with Asleep at the Wheel at the ACM awards on May 8, 2000. This was Billy`s first televised performance. The performance earned Billy a standing ovation. Billy`s first single, One Voice was released on May 20, 2000 and quickly rose to #1 on the Billboard Country Singles Sales Chart, staying there for 5 weeks. On June 20, 2000, Billy`s debut album, also named One Voice was released. When the album was certified Gold by the RIAA on July 19, Billy became youngest country artist ever to accomplish this. On September 12, One Voice album received Platinum certification making him the youngest solo artist of any music genre to achieve this. The album was eventually certified double-platinum status and earned Gilman a Grammy nomination. In January 2001, he was voted the American Music Awards` favorite new country artist, becoming the youngest contender to ever win that prize. He was also given entry into Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest singer to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, eclipsing the record set by 1960`s star Brenda Lee. Gilman released a Christmas album in 2000 titled Classic Christmas which was certified Gold by the RIAA. By the end of the year, Billy was selling 65,000 albums per week. In 2001, Billy released his third album Dare to Dream which was certified Gold by the RIAA. Since then he has released 3 more albums including one based on the poems of Mattie Stepanek, a 13-year old boy with Muscular Dystrophy. Because of puberty, at age 14 Billy was put on vocal rest when his voice began changing. Gilman has appeared on various talk shows, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as performing at the opening ceremonies of the 2006 International Career Development Conference in Dallas, TX and the 2007 International Career Development Conference in Orlando, FL. Both conferences were held by the DECA high school marketing education club. He performed at a benefit for The Station nightclub fire. He is the national youth chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and is on the Muscular Dystrophy Association`s Telethon every year as a co-host.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Gilman

www.billygilman.com/, www.billygilmanfans.com

Billy Gilman

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